Sacramento Daily Union, Volume 22, Number 3354, 27 December 1861 — SPEECH OF H. WINTER DAVIS IN BROOKLYN. N. Y. [ARTICLE]

SPEECH OF H. WINTER DAVI S IN BROOKLYN. N. Y.

On the Southern Insurrection and Power of a Republican Government to Suppress It. r j

[Frooa the New York Tines, ;! December H± ]

A large and appreciative audience assembled last evening, in the Brooklyn Assembly of Music, brought together by the announcement that Henry Winter Davis would deliver an ad«lre=° on " The Southern Insurrection, and the Constitutional Power of a Republican Gorernment to Suppress It."' At 8 o'clock Mr. Davh appeared upon the platform, accompanied by the President of the Mercantile Library Association, and was received by hearty demonstrations of applause. The President, in introducing the speaker, said:

Ladies and Gentlemen : The announcement made on the evening of Mr. Everett's address is to-night fulfilled It is to be our privilege to listen to a new analys's of the great question of the rebellion, and on the constitutional power of the Government for its suppression, from the lips of a patriot from Maryland. Yes, a patriot, whose distinguished name receives new luster from the noble position with which, through these days of our national humiliation, it has been identified. Ladies and gentlemen, I have the p. ensure to introduce to yoc Henry Winter Davis, ol Maryland.

Mr. Davis came forward, and, when the applause which welcomed him subsided, said :

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Association: In the corner stone of the southern wing of the Capitol at Washington, in the handwriting of Daniel Webster, are the following words : Mlf hereafter it shall be the will of God that this structure shall fall, its bases and its foundations be upturned, and this stone be brought to the eyes of men, be it then known that on this day tke Union of the United States of America stands firm ; that the Constitution still exists unimpaired in all its original usefulness and glory, every year more and more attracting the admiration of the world — more and more winning the confidence and affection of the American people." Those words were uttered about ten years ago. Daniel Webster hag not been gathered to his fathers tea years, and that stone is now rocked by the earthquake of revolution. Those institutions which he thus supposed he was announcing to a distant futurity, ceem to nave been brought into question both in the affections of the American people and in the respect 7 of cations abroad. And were he now called upon to rewrite that solemn proclamation to the future, he would vary it in more than one particular. He would say that the Union of the United States of America is now assailed and shaken to its foundation ; he would gay that the Conttitutioa of the United States, apparently, has ceased to command, in great measure, the confidence of the people, and has ceaied to advance in the respect of foreign nations; and that the people of the United Slates are bent on finding a master. The path of any nation in the pursuit of a master is broad and varied in its aspects. There are nations who have found him by reason of their national institutions. There are nations who have sought him through civil strife. There are nation? who have begged him at the hands of foreign intervention. There are nations who have sought him in their own vice and corruption — the degeneracy from their pristine virtue — the forgetfulnes3 of the great principles of their own Government. There ore those who have found him by the too fierce struggle in political parties and the still fiercer struggle of internecine strife between different sections of the same erect country. The people of America now exhibit more that one of the symptoms of that fatal search. They apparently are following— one portion of the country— the path of Mexico. A defeat at the ballot is to be readjusted by an appeal to the bayonet. The other great region of the country seems to be following . them in that deadly path, though Tinder forms a little different. They are seeking a master unconsciously — not so palpably — not less surely not less fatally, by the blindness with which they rush to the civil struggle — by : the forgetfulness which they exhibit of the great conservative principles of their own Government — the readiness that they exhibit to cast into the gulf their most precious treasures of constitutional liberty, if only they may fill up the breach of national integrity. They seem fatally, bent upon laying their liberty a sacrifice upon the altar of their liberty When . Daniel Webster died the nation was boasting of its pre eminent prospective greatness. When James Buchanan left the Pre&iidectial Chair it was almoßt ready to have the history of Herod for its epitaph. Clothed in royal robes, arrayed upon its throne, boasting of its omnipotence, it was eaten of worms and near to giving up the ghost. The walls of the Constitution seemed shaken to their foundation. Thoughtful eyes were first directed to the great demoralization which was pervading the country — the great, the silent, the momentous change that had taken place in the unsettling of the foundations of the republic by that remarkable judgment of the Supreme Court , in the Dred Scott decision, when beaeath the extraordinary pressure of . the times the very tides of the Republic seemed to crsuch and bend beneath the unwieldy burden. The sap went on more earnest, more vigorous, more hopeful as it progressed, and as it '. eared the outbreak of rebellion, all the energy seemed to be concentrated in the assailant, all the doubt, all the hesitation, all the timidity seemed to cluster around those who were lojal, to tie them hand and foot, paralyzed, as it were, before the specter of national destruction. And then it we 3 that those who were assailing the republic thought their day was come to move epenly forward to the accomplishment of that which the? bed in secret been long preparing. Then it was that they boastfully proclaimed in the hearing of the cation that York is joined to Bolingbrcke, and all your Northern castles yielded up, and &11 your Southern gentlemen joined in arms upon his party." Then if was that the sovereign people, taught by ruthless messengers in accents breathless of anxiety, were told that their sovereign power was menaced and threatened with destruction— " white beard had armed their hairless scalps against thy sovereignty—that bojs, with women's voices, clothed their female limbs in staff unwieldy and arms against thy mejeety." Then "thy beardsmen learned to bend their bow* against thy crown." The people thought the picture true. They thought that the bow of the assailant marked the event that was about to occur, and that the . republic was at its last gasp. Men at Washington, as officers of State, went through the vain formality of peacefully withdrawing from the Union while preparing for the deadly struggle that has now been inaugurated. Men at Washington, as officers of State, went through the vain formality of peacefully withdrawing from the Union while preparing for the deadly struggle that has now been inaugurated. Men supposed that the last day of the republic had come. Men gathered around the sick bed of the dying patient and talked quietly and softly for fear of disturbing his last moments. And when men . spoke of coercion, even in whispered and bated breath, they were put far off from the bed cf the dying patient as indicating the exertion that would more rapidly bring to pass the catastrophe that all anticipated. [Applause.} And then an unaccustomed event— strange sound was heard — a new thing under, the American hands armed and pointed cannon at American breasts. American hands battered down an American fortress. American hands dragged dawn the standard of the republic, and boasted that they first trailed it in the dust. Then soon it was apparent that the appearance of death might pervade the nation, but the reality was not there. Nerves of exquisite tenderness had been touched, and it vibrated to the heart of the people, and as one man, from California to the Atlantic, the American nation arose and cast off its premature grave clothes, and challenged its right to be a nation of history. [Applsuee ] Then at death's door the people called for action— action upon a new theory — action, upon new principles and for new purposes— ection outside of all reccgaized asd used paths over which the.American people bad tried— action at the bidding of one stern result and irresistible impulse that seemed for an instant to I blind for months the American mind, to make them forget the great principles of the Constitution, which was framed after the experience of revolution, and is • competent to carry the nation through - another revolution. They supposed, because they bad not hitherto been called upon to deal with the great question of the suppression of insurrection — of the guaranty of republican government to the States — of the assertion ot the supreme authority of the Government— they supposed that laws were meant for times of peace, and that constitutions were I only .to rule in Courts of law. The cry was, " Give them as good as they send ; do as they do ; make their acts, which you protest figtiast, the measure of your conduct ; we cannot afford protection to traitors; the laws are eilect in the midst of arms; necessity is above all law } the safety of the people is the only law." Axjd these maxims, unheard of before in American: law and in the councils of legislation—l need set say never dreamed of in the Courts of justice— these maxims in a great mean ere ruled the Gov«s»na»eiit in its dealing with i js9 tJU.tU!£ uo.«bi*fl, la the napdijg in Tjnigh. it »

attempted to deal with the great* aad ttrribl-j rebellion that we are called upon to euppreaa— ■ ruled i-, not at its own saeges'ion or inspira- i tion— not agate si the will of the perpie; out, the people leading the Government on, urging it on, prompting it, rejoicing over every arbitrary act, callitg for more vigorous meas- j ure?, when the vigor had already, in more than one instance, overstepped the bounds of i law, seeing nothing but the ereuy before it, and sepposiag that enemies against Eawßwere] to be subdued by disregard of the fundamental principles of the Government, 1 I do not think I \ have overstated the case. Certainly, it is not : my disposition to overstate the case. Ido not j know any one that is more interested— no one | here, certainly, is so much interested— in the ' suppression of this rebellion as I am personally, j You see the conflagration from the distance ; it blisters me at mv side. [Applause.] You can ! survive ; we in Maryland can only kvs as those j on the side of a gulf, perpetually tending to i plunge into its depths, unless we can cress. It is for us life and liberty is for you greatness and prosperity. If energetic or illegal measures are necessary, I am more bound to resort to them. I find nothing connected with all the difficulty so dangerous — nothing, in my sight, so threatening in the future — nothing I find myself so unable to deal with — as the temper of the public mind in dealing with this great rebellion. Not that I have tenderness for the parricidal hands that have lifted weapons against the heart of the nation. Let them perish. [Loud applause.] Bat in their grave Ido not wish to see American liberty perish. [Cheers.] It is time, it ie true, that the energy of the nation having mw been aroused— our hosts lining our whole borders, flaming with the conflict— every man conscious that the nation will not die a dog's death and perish from rottenness off the face of the earth— becomes us now to turn our eyes upon the principles on which the contest is to be waged ; to bold those in authority responsible, not merely for energy, but legality — to silence the sneer with which men are met when they call the attention of their neighbors to the limits of law and the Constitution. Let them understand that the American Government will not be so degraded in the eyes of history as to be driven to the necessity of inaugurating revolution for the purpose of suppressing another revolution. [Loud cheers. j They who speak about extraordinary methods — of the necessity of usurpation— of the necessity of neglecting the "technicalities of law," as they politely term them— the necessity of departing from all " red tapeism," which is the ordinary phrase to describe the regular operations of the Government, conducted by wiee men— these men muet be taught (and it is for gentlemen like you to teach them), that it does not prove a man is disloyal, that he thicks the Constitution bo much better than his neighbor as to suppose it is not only powerful in peace, but powerful in war; teat its a?. 'is is not only so broad &a to be able to protect generations in times of peace, but in the midst of civil war the surest protection ; in the face of national disaster the Barest refuge. [Cheers] Let us turn our eyes over the acts or some of them, which have been 'resorted to by the Government in the name of the suppression of the rebellion, and with the accord of the people. If it is usurpation, it is usurpation against a willing people. If it is illegal, it is illegality prompted by the people. It may be that that removes the sting that otherwise would inhere in it had it been adopted upon the mere suggestion of those in authority. But it is equally certain that, with the purpose I am now addressing you, the acclaim of the people is a most dangerous symptom. We have seen in the midst of the American Republic, in the midst of the nineteenth century, after more than eighty years of republican rule, under a plainly written Constitution — we have seen a Republican Administration assume and declare the right to act upon martial law. We hare seen a military commander in charge of a great and important district, within two months, I believe, after Congress adjourned, issue a proclamation inaugurating, formally, martial law over two-thirds of the Btate of Missouri—threatening with death, at the dictation of drum-head court-martial, any one caaght in arms within the district prescribed by his wilL We have seen him assume the right to disregard the law ere the ink was dry, confiscating those whom the law, by omitting, said could not be confiscated. We have seen (and those who have seen them must have laughed) deeds of manumission, signed "John C. Fremont, General-Commanding." [Enthusiastic cheers for John C. Fremont, mingled with hisses. " Three cheers for Fremoat.] Mr. Davis— speech, where I speak. [Applause.] I have seen tempestuous assemblies in my days. Not only such deeds as I have referred to, merely as historically of great moment at this time, but if the papers are to be trusted, I have seen likewise statements that two or three or four individuals have been convicted before a court martial, in the State of Missouri, presided over by a Colonel of Illinois volunteers (that is the judicial tribunal), convicted of being in arms against the United — that is, treason — aad sentenced to hard labor daring the war. The President, with the tdvice of the chief law officer of the Government— a gentleman for whom I entertain, personally and politically, the very highest regard, and whom lam entitled to call my friend in more than one aspect — has, under the pressure of the emergency of the times, asserted a right in the President, and the President has acted upon it, in various instance?, in form, at least, to suspend the light of fuibeas corpus. We have Eeen, likewise, (and when we remember that it is the middle of the nineteenth century we may very well be startled at the very reference), we have seen at least one newspaper— probably more than one newspaper—stopped because of the character of its articles. [Applause] We have Been more than one newspaper— (they do not express my sentiments) — have seen mors than one newspaper excluded from the service cf the mails without authority of law. We have seen a Provost Marshal — the executive officer of a camp inaugurate a civil Court in Alexandria, Virginia ; and, I presume, 1 address not a few of the gentlemen of the mercantile profession of New York if the papers have not again misled mo. I think I saw a few days ago that the Chamber of Commerce had suggested to the President that be should vest authority in the F-jvcst Marshal to continue the civil jurisdiction. [Cries of " Good," and cheers ] We have seen executed, as nothing of the kind has been executed in any despotic country of Europe, and with a completeness end precision, and secrecy and dispatch, that would have done honor to the Chief of Police of France, the seizure of all the tel?grams m all the telegraph offices, from one end to the other of the American Republic, I believe in one day. [Loud applause.] We have Been, I believe, without any authority of law— (at least, if there be any, it has entirely escaped my careful examination of the statutes of the last session of Congress, where I had not the honor to assist, and I know it did not exist previously } —we have seen an order from the Secretary of State saving that no man shall leave the United States without a passport. [Renewed applause.] Now. these things are net cast in the teeth of anybody, nor stated for the purpose of crimination. I use them historically ; I use them for the lesson they teach. I use them to bring them before you, men of America, where you this day stand after your republican Government has been in full and blessed operation for orer eighty years. To go no further with the narration -I need not refer to the subject of continued arrests, apparently outside of the necessity of military suppression— arrests which ought to be authorized by an Act of Congress, or might be authorized by act of the State Legislature, but which have not been authorized, bo far as I : am aware, by any legislative sanction at all ; and with reference to many of those arrested, indeed nearly to all of them, the execution of the writ of habeas copus has in some instances been prevented ; in other instances it hes been refused obedience, I do not say unjustifiably ; I shall discuss that hereafter. We have seen a judge of the highest Court of record, in the District of Columbia, held prisoner in his house, with a soldier marching up and down before the door, with bayonet on his shoulder. [Cries of "Serve him right!" "serve him right!"] We have not yet reached the question whether it has served him right or not. [Cheers.] About the fact there is no doubt that there was no sworn statement against him there is no doubt ; that the ordinary formalities of law were not pursued there iB no doubt. If he was guilty let him jbe punished by law ; if he wa3 bearing arm?, or about to bear arms, let it be known, and the world will justify the set. [Applause.] These things are the history, except the military movements of armies, of the attempt of the United States Government to suppress the insurrection. Two very different views (I submit both erroneous) have been expressed with reference to the events that I have mentioned. The enemies of the Government have cried out about cruel, despotic, illegal ; oppression. The friends of the Government have said, it is not to ba called oppression; it may not be legal; we doubt if they are legal ; but they are justified by the necessities of the case. [Applause 1 The enemies ot the Government have applied their assaults to every act of every kind eveiywhere, which indicated energy, which was out of the ordinary judicial course of proceeding which was necessary to deal with the rebellion without discrimination ; and the friends of the Government, when they found all the acts of the Government assailed indiscriminately, half persuaded themselves that, the constitutional end legal powers of the Government were not sufficient to suppress the rebellion, and apparently agree with the enemies of the Government that there was no legal, 1 'v'ional authority £r fee £}oT*r*ae£t Ie ***? wv*& rtfmi

military measures, and, therefore, concurring in the error, they defended the acts upon the law of necessity. Now, fellow-citizens, there is this to be said, if the Government of the United States, is in a'l respects, ps the friends of the Government and of the suppression of the re- | billion generally maintain, we are brought face \ to ; . fac* with one great qcPßtion, which every \ cue here will gee is of great significance. I; the constitution-. i powers of the Government are j not eofEcient for the suppression of the rebellion 1 — (I mean the constitutional powers of the Government not construed by the standard of South. Carolina — measured by the standared of Daniel Webster— by the standard of Henry Clay [cheers] — measured by the standard of Abraham Lincoln [enthusiastic applause] —if the Constitution cf the United States doeß not confer power upon the Government to deal with a great rebellion like this, then, gentlemen, I wish you to draw your conclusion. Mice is that the Government of George Washington has failed ! [HißEea, and cries of No !"] If the Government that he founded cannot deal with the events before it, it is not an inference of logic — it is the verdict of history— it has failed. I Hisses.] And hisses don't change the verdict. [Laughter ] Or else the hiss is to be interpreted in this sense that the Government has not failed, although it does not afford power to deal with the rebellion, which yet it is its duty to suppress. I say, gentlemen, if the Constitution does not furnish these powers, then the people of the United States are in the face of another revolution. If you cannot find, within the limits of the law written down, the mode and method by which you are to stamp out this rebellion, by what law is the President to be guided ? A Voick— The law of self-preservation. Mr. Davis— The law of Louis Napoleon. A Voice— The law of military power. Mr. Davis— The law of Julius Csesar— the law of the master over the slave. Are you free men of the North as well as the men of Maryland ? Ido not know what you think of George Washington, but I shall not stilly his memory until, with all the lights before me, I shall have read the law he proposed for the government of the Republic, and see, with the light of the Courts, the light of great men, the light of experience, of necessity and of nationality, whether we cannot find on the face of the Con stitution, without making ourselves slaves (for it is to be a slave to be bound to obey the will of anybody beyond the limits of the Law)— see if we cannot, without making ourselves slaves, stamp out this rebellion. [Loud cheers ] And I say, in the first place, that martial Jaw, whatever else is allowed, end while in my judgment, the authority vested in the United States, applied in its proper forms, and described by its constitutional language, is ample — I say that martial law, in any sense in which it is known to the history of the world, is something which is excluded from our system, &nd which we ourselves end oar forefathers have been careful to exclude, because upon their deliberate judgment they considered that that « a* an arbitrary exercise of discretion that could not be safely vested anywhere within our system of Government. Why, what is martial law? I wish to correct "the popular mind, by bringing their attention to the meaning of the words they are using every day. They are all of them crying oat for martial law. If they mean the direction of military authority against armed oppression — the direction of the military power to disperse military res' stance, why don't they use the language of the Constitution, and speak of "calling out the militia to snppreßS the insurrection?" But if they use the words martial law," we must be allowed to interpret it in the only sense in which it is known to the history of the world ; and Wellington has defined it, " It is the will ot the Commander in-Chief." Does the President, of his will, possess the power to declare, to inaugurate, or to enact martial law ? Unless it is the perpetual law of the Republic, it cannot be enacted by him, nor declared by him, nor declared by anybody that he may authorize to daclare it, because Use Constitution says— and this ie a war for the Constitution as well as for the Union— the Constitution says that "ell the legislative powers herein granted are vested in Congress. Then the President cannot proclaim it. Why, what is martial law ? Mere will, limited by no definition even, controlled by nothing except power. The will of the Commander-in-Chief— his discretion under the circumstances — hie determination to allow this and to forbid that— the right to judge people by courts martial— the right to ordtr men to be shot down by a file of soldiers for violating any arbitrary rule— the right to disregard the limitations of the Constitution with reference to trials for treason. The Constitution says that no man shall be tried for treason except by a jury. Martial law has said that he may be tried before a Court Martial. It is blind fate. It is enacted at the dictation of necessity, and necessity owns no law. It is proclaimed in the name of the public safety — it is the annihilation of every guarantee of the public liberty. With us, our Constitution, framed by George Washington, is the great safeguard of the country. That Constitution is the safety of the people. Above it there is no necessity— bejond it there is no — outside of it there is no security. It does not use the word " martial law ;" it does not vest authority to de clare martial law anywhere in anybody. It forbids it, for it prohibits arbitrary trials— it prohibits any trial but th3t by jury. It prohibits arbitrary confiscations of property ; it prohibits arbitrary trial for personal freedom. It provides under proper sanction and with proper limitation for great emergencies such a* that through which we are now pasting. But the Constitution was formed by a man woo had read the Petition of Right ; who knew that Britons had always opposed and strenuously denied to their sovereigns the right to issue commissions j for trial by martial law ; it was framed by a man who knew that one of the petitions of the great Petition was, after reciting that divers commissions had issued under their owe Majesty's seal for trial by the farms of martial law, whereby divers of Her Majesty's citizens bad been executed, contrary to the law of the land— that the law of the land did not recognize any such commissions; that it prohibited it; that hereafter no other such commission should be enforced, and that none of the laws of the land should be prevented of their application, but that all trials I should be according to the lav of the land in i alt prosecutions, civil and criminal. And it was in view 0! that piece of revolutionary history (for it was for that principle that E a gland made their revolution) that our forefathers made their revolution — was to secure that privilege that the men who made the revolution inaugurated these principles aa a solemn part of the Constitution of the Government, which they formed for every emergency, excluding by pointed prohibitions all arbitrary authority, all temporary jurisdiction, all commissions of martial everything but the ordinary coarse of the Courts, it here the liberty of the citizen or his rights of property are in any manner to be disturbed or touched. Now, gentlemen of the Association, if, as I have already said, we are drilling to the mere arbitrary will of those in power, although backed by the will of the great mass of the people, we are on the eve of a more dangerous revolution than that we are now endeavoring to stamp out. I pray you to listen to the words of history and an example, for we are olose upon the tracks of the great example of Rome, who alone, with the exception of England— a great, free, popular Government that for hundreds of years had maintained intact the power of the people by adherence to the laws by the forma of their forefathers— adhered to them intact by strict limitations of authority, by keeping grasped in the hands of the constituted authorities the legislative power— by forbidding the transgression of the legislative power or the usurpation of it, or the assumption of it by their officers. And the whole history Is summed up in one signific nt passage in the Institutes of Justinian, in describing the various sources of law down to the fourth or fifth century, long after the republic bad ceased to be anything but a name — when arbitrary will was the practical government, and no life was secure if th« Prince chose to take it. That great institute of law in one sentence says the history of the progress from freedom to slavery, first, is the la* made by the people on the motion of the Senate ; then the plebiscite made by the plebeians in their ascendency ; then the edicts from time to time uttered by the Senate, their great aristocratic body— that was all the sources of law known to the ancient republic in its days of freedom and glory on which classic scholars still Ike to dwell, and where men in republics still draw their most inspired examples. Then that nignificant history proceeds : " There are not only those sources of law, but also what pleased the Prince has the force of law." When we shall have passed beyond the limits of the Constitation of the United States, and beyond the limits of the Acts of Congress, and beyond the limits of the recognized tribunals of the country, and Bb all have found, or thought we have found them insufficient tor great emergencies, and accordingly at the suggestion of --he popular clamor, rather than take the trouble to find out the forms of authority known to the law, to use and interpret the solemn words of the Constitution, meaning arbitrary methods, devised at the suggestion of the crowd, at the impatience ot the citizen, at the suggestion of terror of mind, which, not beirg in the habit ]of thinking of such things, finding Itself in the presence of cucunistances of danger, and looking in ■ every direction wildly * for-' protection , Iwe shall find a body cf precedents for which the last six month! has been so notable as a found^tkiP; and the?, when you and I have gone to 9 V £r*r## 4 and wh« pur chilaLT«B ere ending '

1 th ; s g oriels climate, gome of their jurists, advising some Ju6tini»n to keep the precepts of law that contains not only the ancient legislation in time of peace, bet 'the edits of the pretor and of arbitrary ; authority, will ; say "not only those sources of law, but also what pi«ases the master of the America": people." He wouldn't call r that law— wouldn't say it is law. Be can't use the language of the Constitution &cd cay, " that Jis the law made by Congress in pursuance of its provisions, but from the necessities of the case— the deficiencies of the written law, at tie obedience of the people, by the royal law of necessity — is as the force of law. May be yon cannot argue it before an anointed Judge, but the bayonet will point the way to prison — it v will have the force of law. We are taking the first steps in that long path which will lead, and can lead, to no other end. We are treading in the straight line which leads into that dark cave into which so many other nations have trodden before us, and from which none have come out gate until after ages of bruising in the mortar of bfEtction, with the scars o^f slavery upon them, through the agonies of a new rebellion. Consistently with our Government there can be co seen thing as martial law. Has the Constitution omitted everything that is necessary to carry the Republic straight through this great crisis ? We make the war in the name of the Constitution, &i d its most important power is that Congress shall guarantee to each of the States of the Union a republican form of government Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina -ail the seceded States— the face of that, have inaugurated governments in defiance of the supreme law of the land. It is i a case in which the Congress of the United States— not by the law of the necessities of the case— not by tha law of self-preservation, bat according to the written law of the land— upon the solemn declaration of the Supreme Court— from the very lips of the Chief Justice who, ap- j parently, is no great friend of the Government at this time— this is the case in which the United States iB bound to intervene with all its power I to guarantee the people of those States, | loyal or rebel, a republican Government — the trial of people according to the forms of law. When they pass an Act of secession it drops before the Constitution— it is waste paper. [Applause.] Their laws are the acts of a mob— their judges are bound to annul and disregard the ordinance of secession. There are some people who think George Washington did not know how to make a Government to stamp out insurrection. It was in his Administration that the law of 1795 was passed, and, at his instigation, ha having found, in the Whisky Rebellion in Pennsylvania, that the preceding laws were inadequate for the purpose of putting down the rebellion, he urged on Congress not to allow him to supply it by the law of public safety or by his own ideas of public necessity. They who impeach Lincoln for usurpation Bhut their eyes to that law. They who say that the Government has no power, no legal authority to use military power to stamp out rebellion, overlook that law. I read to-day the impudent message of the self-styled "President of the Confederate States," in which he audaciously tays that the President has made war upon i them without the authority of Congress. And I yet that man himself, while he was Secretary of j War, under that very law of '95, organized infernal proceedings in the Territory of Kansas. [Applause] I was a party to those proceedings, and I know something about them. I remember that there, owing to the scandalous conduct of the Federal Government, the will of the people of Kansas was overborne. In my humble way I did something to get them their constitutional rights. [Applause j There were those who took other methods than those which i I thought advisable. And there were those— I singular to say— the BErne disposition on the part of the Ftderal Government, carrying out the Southern scheme of inaugurating a selfgovernment in Kansas. There was the same illegality, pressing the law beyond the case to which it really applied, as wag enlisted on the part of the friends of Kansas in some of their nearly revolutionary measures to right and redress themselves. Times were revolutionary, and both parties forgot, or would not understand the plain limitation of law, and each violated it. Jefferson Davia, under the pretext of suppressing an insurrection in Kansas, made use of that very law which now, in Lia message, j he appears to have entirely forgotten. Aud j what iB the law that is the main means of sap- i pressing an insurrection? Tha President himself has no power to do anything. He is charged with the command cf an army when the army exists. It csn only exist by the law of Congress. He is directed by the Constitution to Bee that the 1 iwa are faithfully executed. He can execute no law till it exists. Until, therefore, the laws that give him authority to act, and the instruments, with which to act are made, he has no more power than you or I. He is not our master ; he has no discretion ; he is bound by the limitation of the law. What that allows him to do, he can do ; wV'at it does not allow him to do he cannot do. That ia the principle of our Republican Government. What has Congress done ? If it has not done enough it will meet In the course of a few days, and may do more. If it has omitted important measures, it can supply deficiencies. And what it has dene up to this time is the limit of what it is allowable for the Executive power to do. It has not passed a law confiscating, all the property of the rebels, and therefore, nobody has the right to confiscate all their property. Be it right or wrong, wise or nntrisa, it is not in the : aw, and, therefore, it is forbidden. It has authorized, and in my judgment, wisely, the confiscation of property used to promote rebellion, and there it &topa — and there the President is bound to stop there the military commanders are bound to stop, whether on a foraging party or otherwise. That ia the impassable limit of their power. It has enacted that there shall be & blockade of the Southern coast, a cessation of commercial intercourse, i That is the greatest stretch of power that Congress has undertaken to exercise touching this subject. In my judgment it ie within its full competency. In my judgment it was necessary to the accomplishment of the great purpose of preventing military end other supplies from reaching men in arms. It, doubtless, bears hardly on the loyal men of the South who have swarmed there, aa I am proud to hoar, by thousands, bat disarmed, and, therefore, powerless. [Applause.] And while they feel the privations, they submit cheerfully to the restriction, for over the light of the conflagration they still seethe dawn of the coming day of liberty. j Applause. ] These are two things that Congress have done. What else has it dene? Placed a magnificent army at the disposal of the President of the United States, charged to guarantee a republican Government to those who now no longer know its blessings, and to stamp out the last spark of rebellion ; first in the Courts of justice, then through the ministerial offices, the Marshal with the power of the country against a mob ; that is adequate. When that is overborne, and the lawa can no longer be executed by the power vested in the Marshal of the United States ; when the ordinary civil, judicial and legal modes of proceeding have failed, the enemies of the Government say that it must stand with its hand by its side, and see itself torn limbless. Does the law Bay that because the Courts can render no assistance they cannot be opened? On the contrary, when they have been closed, then the law lifts the banner of the republic, draws. the sword, and carefully, still waiting, and giving its erring children time for repentance, forbids the use of the drawn sword till the President shall have uttered his proclamation, directing that unlawful combinations — not seceded States, but unlawful combinations of men, too strong to be dispersed by martial law— do go to their respective homes, and that Abraham Lincoln did. [Applause ] And when i they did not go to their respective homes, when all the stages of republican forbearance had been passed, when all the forms of law had been invoked, the last remedy was all that remained, and he solemnly put forth his proclamation to call the children of the republic to its de'enee, and they answered by the million. [Applause.] Now what are they charged to do? What is the reason that military force i a allowed at all? Because the civil process baa been overborne. What is the purpose of the military force ? To disperse armed opposition, i to arrest the progress of the Marshal that closes the Court of justice, silences the Judge on the bench, and renders impossible the ordinary and positive enforcement of the law. And what do you want the army to do? To bant peaceful people, quietly residing at home, that a Marshal with a writ can arrest ? Are six hundred thousand men, your sons and brothers, in arms for that? How wretchedly inadequate is the causa? For what? It is to brash away the array of armed men, it is to break " down a combination of armed foree — to break the military power arrayed against the republic. When that is broken what stands bets-ten the Marshal nnd the person that the law wants to punish? The right to draw the sword comes frem the fact that the law ia arrested. The sword must go into its scabbard when the law no longer meets with opposition beyond the power of the Marshal. It is not martial law ; it is the solemn written law of the Republic that armed men shall meet armed men— that these who appeal to arms shall be met in arms. And then when they quote to yon, as they do, the language of the Constitution, that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without one process of law, I reply that military power need against thsss in arrne against the GovercmeLt is a process of law. lApphus?.] A ballet speeds on its s&fijeft j B** m . ijrAiij &s c &*?•&£] jrlsii

! his writ. [Applause.] The order to lire oa men arrayed against the Government is an mush the language of the Constitution of the United States as tSe order of the Marshal to arrest the men named in his process. [Applause.] Let them disperse :if they do not wish to be disEerae<l ; and if thty will not then, they <?rjw the , re of the Government— they call down its . thunderß upon their heads— they necessitate an i appeal to the sword. Let them who draw it i perish by it. : [Applause] Why talk about j that word which is unheard ,of in republican ; lands, but is the home companion of the despots jof Earope— martial law— a state of siege— l will of the commander the necessity of ■ dooming people to death after they hare I been arrested by the military authority, | because vengeance cannot afford to wait ■ for a lagging process of trial? When the military array is dispersed they no longer present opposition to the enforcement of the laws ; the necessity of the military force ceases with the dispersion ; the right to nee it ceases with the necessity ; the necessity is limited by the language of the law to combinations too pow- | erful to be suppressed by the ordinary processes |of law. Now I submit to every gentleman here whether that is not the true legal and constitutional position. Webster said more than once, j in arguing great questions, that he kept his feet ' ! from the maps of general definitions— he kept to the language of the Constitution. Is it ! not better to keep to the statute book and the Constitution than to insult the memory of Washington by supposing that the machinery of the Government cannot act wh*»n it is required to? And what then? These critical gentlemen Buy it is a violation of the law to encamp upon a man's property. They forget what their own Courts have solemnly and repeatedly decided. ; When military force is called out how must it demean itself? Dots it stop to pay toll? [Laughter.] Does it aak leave to trespass on a gentleman's ground before it ventures to deploy against an advancing foe ? Is it to assess damages for treading down grass before it can throw up a breastwork to protect its soldiers from an advancing foe ? We are familiar with the process of the Sheriff, and its jury of condemnation to take & man's property and assess, damages to build a railroad. Is the authority to take & ns&a's property for such a purpose mere imperative than that which allows the Government to defend itself against military power Before the supreme right of the Government to wage war— foreign or domestic— lines are obliterated—[applause]—every division of private property is obliterated— every individual right iB gone. It is the right of eminent domain of the. Republic, assisted in time of war by the highest political authority, the Constitution of the United State?. Then in relation to the her great question, the writ of habeas corpus, who can suspend it? The war power does not suspend it. Can the President ? In England it is Suspended only by the Act of Parliament re { e>ling the statute. So there is no power but teat of Congress in this country to arrest the progress of that Act. In my judgment it was a serious oversight iv Congress to neglect at its last session to provide for its suspension. That is their fault. Bat that do.-B not rest the power of suspension in the President. (The speaker here cited an argument on this question of the President of H ir yard University, which he considered one of the ablest he had seen ; aIBO, the authority of Chief Justice Marshall in an important case, saying that until Congress seen fit to suspend it, the Court must perform its duty.) I presume that argument may be disposed of after that. But what then The enemies of the Government draw from that an argument to paraljzethe military force of the Government. You cannot suspend the writ of habeas corpus; therefore, it can discharge everybody. This is their argument. The business— according to those who wish to destroy the Government — the writ of habeas corpus i?, to let traitors out. I respectfully submit, they have overlooked some very material distinctions. Who is discharged by the writ of habeas corpus ? The person who ought not to be confined. If he ought to be confined, although he came up on the call of the writ, he willjbe ssnt back by the people. [Cites illustration of an apprentice, & sailor signing the article?, or a soldier signing the muster roll] They are guilty who argue in tbia way, if assuming that there can be no legal confinement except that which proceeds from legal process, or subject to judicial examination. I say there oan. The President is authorized to use military force— against whom? Not against people at home, who intend treason, but against men i in arms— men aiding and abetting the enemy, furnishing arms, or giving them informationmen doing any act of any kind to aid the armed rebellion, Chief Justice Taney, in a case which has become celebrated, and always unfortunate for the doubt which in some minds it has thrown I over the law, previously well settled by the SaI preme Court, by his judgment in the ease of Merryman, we were all thrown into a a ate of astonishment to find apparently that there was no authority to hold otherwise than by the law of the Courts, and on immediate process. Jeff. Davis is at Bull Bun or Manassas Gap. In the course of a few weeks we trust the bayonets of the Republic will point in that direction. [Cheers] We hope that superior military skill, great mill tar organization, as well as abundant military rials, inspired by the love of the Constitution and the Union, shall goon smite and destroy the Confederate arm? ; and when it is destroyed, if Mr. Jeff. Davis shall happen to to be taken prisoner, together with fifty thousand of his soldiers, we shall see a writ of habeas corpus issued from the Circuit Court of the United States at Richmond, under the protection of the United States' bayonet?, to call all the fifty thousand before that Court and discharge them, because there is not a magistrate's warrant to hold them ! [Laughter.] You may shoot a soldier, but if you do not shoot him you cannot hold him alive ! Why, has j everybody forgotten the Dover case, when they wanted to make a revolution on a small scale, in a small but very patriotic State not very far from here. [Mr. Davis stated the cage, and cited Chief Justice Tansy's opinion in the ; cage, as conclusive against the opinion taken by him in th^ Merry man case] The Courts proceed according to judicial forms ; the political power does not proceed according to judicial forms— it proceeds in a manner that is i equally just, for the Constitution authorizes both. Mr. Davis commented upon the importance of this decision, made under the adminis tration of President Tyler, when the Government in every branch was controlled by the Southerners a judgment rendered by one not perhaps so friendly to our side at this time, but j which was the very foundation of the law of the j republic, put there in the administration of j Tyler, as if to provide for the very cas • that now exists; exhorted his hearers not to let the name of Republicanism go back to Europe stained with a confession of its own failure, and continued : It is our liberty that makes us respected and envied, powerful and glorious. That liberty is opposed to democratic license. [Applause.] It is self-control that is the greatnesa of the American obedience to their own will— declaring that the country is the salua populi. When they shall neglect to adhere to that great rule, they can no longer be the peaceful, orderly, progressive, powerful Republic that they have been. When you shall upheave the quiet depths of the ocean by the earthquake of rebellion, you will have destroyed its majestic course — you will have changed the great current of your prosperity — will have arrested the course of your power, and you will then become ne more than than the lava soil of revolutionary Earope. [Loud applause.] A Noble Ohdbb.— subjoined noble order reflects equal honor on the troops whose heroic conduct it records, and on the commander who has signalized his short campaign by each sue* cesses : HIADQCABTBBS, Camp "Hopeless Chase," ) Pikktok (Ky.), Nov. 10, 1861. £ -Soldiers: I thank you for what you have done. In a campaign of twenty days you have driven the rebels from Eastern Kentucky, and given repose to that portion of the State. You have made continual forced marches over wretched roads, deep in mud. Badly clad, you have bivouacked on the wet ground in the November rain without a murmur. With scarcely half rations you have pressed forward with unfailing perseverance. The only place that the enemy made & stand, though ambushed and very strong, you drove him from in the most brilliant at} le. For year constancy and courage I thank you, and, with the qualities which you have shown that yon poß&ess, I expect great things from you in the future. W. Nelson. By command of Brig. Gen. Nelson. Jons M. Duke, Jr., Aid-de-Camp. Tatloh A Brothehs, cotton spinners, of Wigai, England, who employ about two thousand fire hundred hands, have just issued the following notice to their operatives: "In consequence of the civil war in America and the blockade of the Southern port a supply of American cotton cannot for some time be anticipated. Toe stock of cotton which we have held has enabled us so far to keep our mills running fall time. We now, however, think it right to inform you that, should American affairs remain in the same position in January next as at present, we shall then be ondtr the necessity of closing our mills. We trust that your prudence and good sense will lead you to save what jou now can for the time when you may be oat of employment." Ah Axiom —The cuff of a lad» is much, better «a the alette tJtt&S epocit* ear,